O'Hare highway project to shut some lanes nightly

Some lanes will be closed nightly for resurfacing of Interstate Highway 190 into and out of O'Hare International Airport.

Some lanes will be closed nightly for resurfacing of Interstate Highway 190 into and out of O'Hare International Airport. (Chicago Tribune illustration)

Jon HilkevitchTribune reporter

Resurfacing of the primary road leading into and out of O'Hare International Airport began Monday night and will continue until about a week before Thanksgiving, the Chicago Department of Aviation announced Monday, giving drivers short notice.

The work on Interstate Highway 190 will require nightly lane reductions from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. through Nov. 15, officials said.

The work zones will extend on I-190 for about a mile from Coleman Drive to O'Hare's Terminal 1 on the entrance part of the highway, and for about three-quarters of a mile from Terminal 3 to Coleman Drive on the exit part of the highway, the Aviation Department said.

The improvements include resurfacing the I-190 and Coleman ramps, curb and gutter repairs, median replacement and drainage repairs, officials said. The last resurfacing of the sections now to receive an asphalt overlay was done in 1995.

Aviation officials said the work will have little to no effect on traffic. But drivers may want to leave themselves a little extra time to reach the terminal core or the economy parking lots, especially in the 9 p.m.-to-midnight period, when most airline flights are wrapping up for the day.

Chicago is considering a long-range plan to widen I-190 and build a new Mannheim Road over the highway, complete with a bridge ramp feeding traffic to the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294).

I-190 has one of the highest traffic volumes per lane of any road in the nation, Chicago transportation officials said. It's important to improve ground transportation around O'Hare to accommodate the millions of additional travelers a year after all the planned new runways are built, they said.

Airport traffic on I-190 is expected to increase as much as 60 percent by 2020, the Aviation Department said.

The city also has not given up on plans to eventually build a western-access road into O'Hare and a ring-road highway connecting the Tri-State and the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), as well as adding parking on the western side of the airport in connection with the O'Hare expansion. The major airlines, however, have refused to help pay for the non-airfield improvements.

In addition to adding lanes and ramps on I-190, another concept includes extending Balmoral Drive so it connects between Coleman Drive at O'Hare's international Terminal 5 and the village of Rosemont. The strategy is to provide an alternative road to and from the airport to take pressure off I-190. The city has not found money to pay for the projects.